Oct 21, 2011

A postscript to "Chasing Aphrodite"

la dea di Morgantina

Ralph Frammolino, one of the co-author's of "Chasing Aphrodite" has a cover story in the November issue of Smithsonian Magazine. It recounts his unsuccessful attempt to interview Renzo Canavesi, a man identified as the previous owner of the statue formerly known as the "Getty Goddess" but now called "la dea di Morgantina". He wasn't willing to talk, but we are reminded again of the great reporting done on the statue and the Getty:

While Jason [Felch, his coauthor,] was reporting in Sicily, I went to Switzerland to interview Renzo Canavesi, who used to run a tobacco shop and cambia,
or money-changing house, near Chiasso, just north of the Italian
border. For decades the border region had been known for
money-laundering and smuggling, mostly in cigarettes but also drugs,
guns, diamonds, passports, credit cards—and art. It was there in March
1986 that the goddess statue first surfaced in the market, when Canavesi
sold it for $400,000 to the London dealer who would offer it to the
Getty.

The transaction had generated a receipt, a hand-printed note on
Canavesi’s cambia stationery—the statue’s only shred of provenance. “I
am the sole owner of this statue,” it read, “which has belonged to my
family since 1939.” After the London dealer turned the receipt over to
authorities in 1992, an Italian art squad investigator said he thought
Canavesi’s statement was dubious: 1939 was the year Italy passed its
patrimony law, making all artifacts discovered from then on property of
the state. After a second lengthy investigation in Italy, Canavesi was
convicted in absentia in 2001 of trafficking in looted art. But the
conviction was overturned because the statute of limitations had
expired.

It's a good summary of a very fine book. And as I'm reading the story again, I'm reminded of Marion True and the Getty and the cover up and the duplicitous nature of her public comments in favor of protection, all while she was acquiring objects. There must be, I'm sure, a story like this for the repatriations from the other museums. But that reporting has not been done yet.